In a floating point system that contains one mathematical unit which performs all the different floating point operations, there is a need for only one set of circuitry that detects special operand cases since there is only one operation occurring at any one time. When multiple floating point mathematical units are placed in a system, having each unit detect special case operands becomes redundant. Logic is duplicated and is inefficient use of integrated circuit space and may reduce speed if the circuitry is within a critical speed path.
Some systems are designed to only detect that a special operand has been found in a system, and that the normal circuitry will produce an erroneous result if the special operand is processed normally. These systems rely on software to generate the correct result for these special cases or the use of software-intensive exceptions. This use of software is extremely time consuming and inefficient for most applications.